My husband and I spent a week at the beach and only ordered dinner out one time. We had subs and chicken wings delivered on the very first night of our vacation. We were extremely tired from driving and unpacking and settled for delivery, but the food was definitely not worth the $40 price tag.The chicken wings were so terrible we both ate one and threw the rest in the garbage. The subs were cold and subpar.
From that moment on I decided to prepare the rest of our meals. I enjoy cooking and I find that most of the time my meals taste just as good if not better than the stuff I order when we go out. Plus, with an active 20 month old running around it’s difficult to enjoy a quiet evening in a restaurant.
I searched for a few recipes and went to the store in search of ingredients. The grocery bill totaled $250, but that included food for breakfast, lunch and dinner for seven days.
The best meal of the week was crunchy coconut chicken fingers with mango dipping sauce. The sauce was blended until smooth and consisted of the following ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise
- 1 fresh mango chopped
- 1 tablespoon honey
- pinch of curry powder
- 8 drops of Sriracha sauce
- Juice from 1/2 of a large lemon (probably a tablespoon’s worth)
I also prepared these curry chicken wraps earlier in the week. I’ve prepared these a couple of times, because my son absolutely loves the flavor. He’s not a meat or poultry fan, (he tends to prefer fruits and veggies), but for some reason he gobbles this down.
One night my husband and I prepared pizza using canned sauce and pizza dough purchased from Harris Teeter. We weren’t the best at figuring out how to flatten out the dough, (I definitely need to watch some YouTube videos), but in the end we managed to make it work. I had a good time making the pies despite our lack of talent. We covered them with a combination of provolone and mozzarella and experimented with three pizzas by making crusts of different thicknesses and various amounts of sauce and cheese. When we were finished my husband decided he liked the less crispy pizza while I preferred the one with almost no sauce and lots of cheese.
One night we prepared Harris Teeter prepared burgers. I bought the sweet onion and cheese version which is always delicious. We boiled sweet corn and cooked a few leftover potatoes from the night before.
I also enjoyed the chicken fajitas we prepared on the very last night of vacation. This may have been my favorite night, since my husband actually chopped the chicken and all of the vegetables.
My only miss was a new recipe I tried for sloppy joes. These were edible, but definitely not something I would make again. I’m not really a fan of sloppy joes, but thought this spin on them, might change my mind. I was wrong. No matter how you dress them up I really don’t like them!
I really do enjoy cooking and didn’t mind making meals while we were on vacation. One day I did miss the sun, as I stayed inside to cook, and it rained the minute I finished and walked outside, but otherwise it was actually quite nice way to wind down the evening.
How about you? Do you ever stay home and cook when you are on vacation?